Performance Ratings Do Not Reflect Actual Delivery
Performance ratings are consistently high despite visible differences in contribution, delivery or business results.
How we can help
Performance & Rewards
Performance and reward systems aligned to the behaviours and outcomes that matter.
Overview
What an organisation measures, recognises and rewards sends a powerful signal about what actually matters. When performance systems reinforce the wrong behaviours, people can become highly effective at achieving objectives that no longer serve the organisation's strategy.
A performance framework can therefore be technically sound and still fail strategically. The real test is whether objectives, measures, management practices, job structures and rewards reinforce the behaviours and outcomes the organisation needs to achieve.
At Concinnity, we help organisations design performance and reward systems that create this alignment. We connect strategy, performance expectations, job architecture, grading, incentives and managerial practice, ensuring that people understand what is expected and how performance will be recognised.
Performance & Rewards
We help organisations create performance and reward systems that translate strategy into clear expectations, consistent accountability and meaningful differentiation.
From strategy to objectives. From objectives to behaviour. From performance to meaningful reward.
Performance Management Framework Design
Design performance frameworks that connect organisational strategy to individual and team objectives, creating clarity around what success looks like.
Reward Strategy & Structure Design
Develop reward structures that support organisational priorities, promote fairness and competitiveness, and recognise the contribution the organisation genuinely needs.
Job Architecture & Grading Design
Create clear job families, levels and grading structures that establish consistent logic for roles, responsibilities, progression and reward.
Incentive Alignment With Strategic Objectives
Review and redesign incentive mechanisms so that financial and non-financial rewards reinforce the behaviours and outcomes required to execute strategy.
Performance Culture & Manager Capability Building
Strengthen managers' ability to set meaningful objectives, give feedback, address underperformance and recognise contribution consistently.
Performance Differentiation & Calibration
Establish processes that enable organisations to distinguish meaningfully between levels of performance and apply standards consistently across teams and functions.
Performance Governance & Review
Strengthen the processes, governance and management routines that keep performance systems active, consistent and aligned as organisational priorities evolve.
Signs You Need This
Performance ratings are consistently high despite visible differences in delivery, and managers struggle to address underperformance because the framework offers little support.
The common thread: what people are asked to achieve, how they are managed and how they are rewarded are pulling in different directions.
Rewards are Reinforcing the Wrong Behaviours
Existing incentives encourage behaviours that may undermine collaboration, customer outcomes, risk management or other strategic priorities.
Job Architecture has Become Inconsistent
Roles, grades and responsibilities have evolved organically, creating unclear grading logic or perceived inequities across the organisation.
Managers Avoid Difficult Performance Conversations
Managers struggle to address underperformance or give constructive feedback because the framework does not provide sufficient clarity or support.
High and Low Performance are Rewarded Similarly
The organisation finds it difficult to differentiate reward and recognition meaningfully, reducing the incentive for sustained high performance.
Incentives Encourage Short-Term Behaviour
Reward structures drive immediate targets while creating unintended consequences for longer-term value, capability or organisational health.
Our Approach
We begin with the strategy and outcomes the organisation needs to achieve, identifying the behaviours, contributions and results that performance and reward systems should reinforce.
From there, we design the performance architecture that connects enterprise objectives to functions, teams and individuals, ensuring expectations are clear and measurable at every level.
We review existing reward structures and incentives for both intended and unintended consequences, redesigning reward mechanisms where necessary so they reinforce priorities without compromising longer-term performance.
We focus heavily on the manager's role, since even the strongest performance framework will fail if managers cannot set meaningful objectives, provide feedback or address difficult conversations.
Before implementation, we test the framework against real organisational scenarios to identify inconsistencies and unintended incentives, then establish governance and review mechanisms to keep the system aligned as the organisation evolves.
From strategy to expectations. From expectations to performance. From performance to meaningful differentiation and reward.
